Sewalanka`s community based disaster risk reduction (DRR) program underwent its first real test on Tuesday, 9 September when, following a major earthquake off the coast of Sumatra, the national disaster warning centre issued an official tsunami warning.
The warning sparked panic in a number of coastal areas but two groups of villages in Kalutara and Habantota had been preparing for such an event since the inception of Sewalanka`s DRR initiative in 2006.
As part of a pilot scheme for a broader national program, Sewalanka has helped the inhabitants of Payagala and Kirinda villages establish disaster management committees to coordinate responses to future threats, particularly tsunamis. These committees were established to serve as focal points in the event of a disaster, alerting people to threats, managing communication with the government and overseeing evacuation efforts.
Working with Sewalanka`s risk reduction experts, committee members devised comprehensive plans for the management of future disasters. A number of groups were established; teams in charge of early warning, life saving and first aid, and the committees meet regularly to coordinate activity, discuss emergency procedures and attend training sessions conducted by Sewalanka`s DRR advisory committee.
Having agreed upon and formalised their disaster management plans, the committees had in the past months begun to conduct drills. On Tuesday they were confronted with the real threat of another tsunami and months of drills and over a year of planning and preparation was put into immediate practice.
Simple hand operated sirens distributed by Sewalanka with funding from USAID sounded to warn people of the threat. On hearing the alarm people proceeded, as they had done in previous drills, to established secure locations, both inland and at elevation, where they waited until they were told the threat had passed.
The committee had made special provisions to ensure the evacuation of children and the elderly. Volunteers located and then escorted these vulnerable groups to secure locations.
Sewalanka`s Regional Director (South) Mr Ajith Tennakoon said that Sewalanka field staff witnessed first hand the community response to the warning and the efforts of the committee to organise and evacuate the inhabitants according to established plans.
"We are pleased to report that on this occasion the efforts by the communities were entirely successful," Mrt Tennakoon said.
"Given that there is no longer any direct Sewalanka involvement in the village disaster management committees, the villagers` response was in fact wholly autonomous. The success of the response was therefore particularly satisfying as the focus of Sewalanka is to allow communities to cope with disasters on their own.
"Of course on this occasion there was, thankfully, no tsunami but the success of the villages` response to the crisis particularly given the difficulties experienced elsewhere, indicates both the success of the program and the need to expand it to other communities," he concluded.
Source: www.reliefweb.int (26 September 2007)
